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( No Model.)

P. H. RICHARDS.

BLANK PIGKER' FOR ENVELOPE MACHINES.

No, 331,444. v Patented Dec. 1; 1 885.

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V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO THE PRAT'DSU WHITNEY COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONN.

BLANK-PICKER FOR ENVELOPE-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 331,444, dated December 1, 1885.

Application filed October 16, 1884. Serial No. 145,664. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Blank-Picker for Envelope-Machines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the'accompanying drawings, in whicha Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of such a picker embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the under side of the same, also partially in section.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout both views.

This invention relates to certain improvements in the so-called pickers or gummers which are used in envelope-machines for taking up the uppermost blank from a pile of blanks by means of an adhesive substance previously applied to the under surface of said picker or gummer.

In United States Patent No. 221,835, J represents a gummer and picker of an ordinary construction arranged for gumming and pick ing up blanks. In United States Patent No. 288,673, 0 represents a similar one arranged to be used for gumming only. My improved picker or gummer is adapted to be used in either of these ways, as may be desired.

Heretofore in operating envelope-machines it hasbeen found a difficult matter to make a picker bear down upon the blanks with substantially a uniform pressure over the whole surface covered by said picker. Several expedients have been resorted to for overcoming the difficulty-such as an elastic or a tilting bed on which to place the pile of blanks-but thus far, in my opinion, without effecting a material improvement. Since the depth of the pile of blanks is constantly varying, as well as the quality of the paper and the accuracy of the cutting out of it, it is obvious that the effect of such expedients cannot be A uniform.

The object of my invention is to secure the proper contact of the whole lower surface of the picker with the blank by means of an improved construction of the picker itself, whereby the lower surface thereof will not only conform in its general position to the blank, but will also conform, owing to its flexibility, to all undulations of said blank. This object I accomplish by means of the improvements in the construction of said picker which are hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, S is the usual vertical shaft, to the bottom of which the picker is suitably fixed. F is a picker -frame adapted to receive and hold a hollow flexible pickerbody. P is the body of the picker, which is made hollow, and in some portions of flexible material. The interior is filled with a suitable flowing materialas, for instance, the elastic flowing material, air or gas; the nonelastic flowing material, water or other fluid; or the solid non-elastic flowing material, roundish-grained sand, shot, or other simila substances. Of these three kinds of flowing materials I prefer either the second or the third, because these are substantially nonelastic at the pressures required. The pickerbody may be made of any suitably-elastic materialsuch as rubber-either with oravithout a fibrous admixture. It is desirable to prevent the working-face M from having any material amount of lateral extensibility, which can be done by embodying therein a web of canvas or woven wire. I prefer, also,to make said face stifier than the other parts of the picker-body, and to do so by means of a flexible metallic web within the lower part of the body 1?. This metallic web may be made of sheet metal, preferably perforated, or of wirecloth, as shown in the drawings. One object of thus stiffening that part is to keep the gumreceiving surface more nearly in a true plane, thereby insuring a better contact thereof with the gum-delivering roller usually employed in combination with envelope-blank pickers and gummers. The picker-body may be secured to frame F by cementing these parts together at 0; but I prefer to accomplish this by means of a flange, J, formed on said body and fitting a corresponding groove formed in said frame. This is shown in Fig.1.

For the purpose of filling its interior, body P should be provided with an opening or tube, as T, which may be closed by a plug or screw, as 0. Side and end walls, H, should be made elastic, and when so made are preferably held from lateral displacement by flange N of frame F. This flange should extend downward far enough to prevent any undue lateral movement of the working-face M.

My improved envelope-blank picker may be operated,in connection with the usual gumming-roller and blank-carrying devices, by means of the mechanism usually employed for so operating the old kinds of such pickers. When the pile of blanks is undulating, as shown by line a: 2, Fig. 1, and the picker is broughtdown until it touches the uppermost blank at D, the face M, owing to its flexibility, will be forced up; and this upward motion of one part of saidface, acting through the flowing filling aforesaid, tends to force down those partsof said face, as at E, which do not yet touch said blank. This action continues as the picker descends until the whole lower surface, M,'is in contact with the blank. If the said filling is not only a flowing material, but also non-compressible, the said action is improved, because while the flexibility of face M isnot lessened the picker may be brought down upon the blank with greater force with less compression of the picker-body. On beginning its ascent the picker-face, being elastic, as described, naturally regains its plane shape, and retains the same until again brought down onto the blank-pile.

I have described and illustrated my invention as constructed to be used as an envelopeblank. picker and gummer; but it is obvious a rigid frame and picker-body having a closed space filled with a flowing material, combined and operating substantially as described.

2. An envelope-blank picker consisting of 5. An elastic picker-body having therein a v flexible metallic web, substantially as described.

6. An elastic picker-body having therein a flexible perforated metallic web, substantially as described.

7. An elastic picker'body having therein a flexible perforated metallic web of wire-cloth, substantially as described.

8. The combination of frame F, having within it a recess for receiving a hollow pickerbody, P, and a hole for receiving tube T, the

hollow picker-body P lying in said recess and having a tube, T, passing into said hole, and plug 0, substantially as described.

9. The combination of frame F, having flange N, and picker-body P, having stiffened face M and elastic side walls, H, substantially as described.

10. The combination of picker-body P, having the web W, elastic side walls, H, and flange J, and frame F, having flange N and a groove to receive flange J, substantially as described.

FRANCIS 1-1. RICHARDS.

Witnesses:

G. O. PALMER, H. W. FAULKNER.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No; 331,444, granted December 1 1885, upon the application of Francis H. Richards, of Springfield, Massachusetts, for an improvement in Blank-Pickers for Envelope-Machines, errors appear in the printed specification requiring correction, as follows: In lines 47 and 51, page 2, the article 5 a should appear before the words piekerbodyfl and that the Letters Patent should be read with these corrections therein to make it conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 23d day of March, A. D. 1886.

[SEAL] H. L. MULDROW,.

Acting Secretary of the Interior. Gountersigned M. V. MoNTGoMERY,

Comnu'ssioner of Patents. 

